Thursday, April 30, 2009

Nice Decorations. Bad Art.

There seems to me to be a depressing increase in the production of willfully obscure art across the country in the past 5 years. This proliferation is mostly in the visual arts sector, but also lately in theatre and dance. This art lacks engagement, ideas, and intelligence and is for the most part completely devoid of imaginative ambition. Of course there has always been this lack of ambition in art, but today it seems that it is this kind of product that receives support from local authority and central government.
It irritaes me becasue the art addresses the interests of no-one except the artist; it cosnsists of the expression of small and inconsequential ideas - usually those that any half-rate, amateur psychology student would consider banal: eg "I'm interested to see what happens when you decompose things. Gosh! Maybe even relationships decompose!" or "Let's invite people to write down what they fear and stick it in yellow post-its on a door maked Room 101" or "Let's make a performance using the way people rush to work in the morning" etc. In theatre this trend is manifested in the production of pieces comprised of empty, [often] site-specific installation-cum-performance efforts, which are to be applauded merely for the fact that they got off the ground in the first place, and for the novelty in their creation, rather than their ambition, ideas or aesthetics.
I do feel that this art is the product of a settled, spoilt, mentality; one that was brought up in comfort and ease; a mentality that has never had to encounter spirit-stimulating experiences or engage in life-challenging ideas. Sadly, the artists in question are very often the generation aged between 18 and 35 - the very generation that one hopes will produce challenging, fascinating, rebellious, intelligent and provocative agents of change. We have done a disservice to this generation is not allowing them to solve problems on their own; not encouraging them to experiment and to fail; preventing them from taking risks; and disinclining them to be independent thinkers and actors. Their 'art' is often a product of this safe, complacent mentality that cannot engage with anything or anyone outside of their own immediate world. It is almost always confessional (not a bad thing if there are interesting ideas to 'confess' but dreadfully dull if your confessions are banal); derivitive (compelling if you use the original as an inspiration for further critique, but wasteful if you do no more than shift the context); facetious (scintillating in the hands of a satirist but annoying otherwise); and repetitive.
Urban arts centres and fringe theatre festivals seem to condone nothing but this practice. It would be astonishing if the art housed and produced in the country’s arts centres were meaningul and engaging. But for that to happen it would need to be curated by people who possess two essential skills - imagination and intelligence. Imaginative people will make something exciting happen. Intelligent people will make sure everyone is involved. The absence of these qulities in an arts administrator usually results in policies that say nothing; practices that arise from a fear of difference; actions that are inspired by an over-riding desire to control; and an attidude of arrogance and contempt. All of which is compunded by cliquish thinking, exclusionist ideas, and an unwillingness to learn from the artists who are supported by the administrators.

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